The Internet is melting down based on reports that Bob Iger has confirmed that the Star Wars standalone films will star a young Han Solo and Boba Fett.

Nuke the Fridge is running the story based on multiple sources (including TheForce.Net and MovieWeb.Com.)

Here’s what they’re saying:

As reported earlier by Nuke The Fridge.com, it was said that “origin stories” (meaning character spin-off movies) where being talked about around Disney & Lucasfilm, now Disney CEO Bob Iger is confirming that Han Solo & Boba Fett spin-offs are already in the works.

None of the links to the sources on their page seem to be working, so I had to check out all of the sources they quoted manually, looking for this Bob Iger quote, because him saying, “Boba Fett and Han Solo are getting movies,” would be an incredibly big deal.

This would have surely been front page news on those sites, right?

Well, it wasn’t. So I dug deeper.

The best I could do was that Nuke the Fridge was trying to pass off old speculation (like this piece from Entertainment Weekly back in February, and this piece on MovieWeb that erroneously piggy backed on Entertainment Weekly’s speculation, again back in February.)

Never once is Iger quoted in the way Nuke the Fridge is asserting.

Then, checking TheForce.Net, the closest thing I can see to a young Han Solo movie is their report that Bleeding Cool is asserting that casting for a Young Han Solo has been underway for quite some time. Bleeding Cool has no named sources on their speculative report and don’t mention Bob Iger at all.

So, the lesson here?

Nuke the Fridge is a site that seems to cobble together old news and write ledes in irresponsible ways, leading everyone from the 501st to John Q Star Wars fan to think we’ve got an official Disney confirmation from Bob Iger that Han Solo and Boba Fett are getting spin-off films.

Now, it bears mentioning that we could very well end up getting those films, BUT, there is no confirmation of then. And there’s no evidence that Bob Iger has confirmed it. And there’s no reason to believe that Nuke the Fridge’s report is based on anything but old speculation, reformulated to get your hopes and dreams up.

I’ve reached out to Nuke the Fridge to see if they have anything else to say, and will update accordingly.

One of the most surprising announcements to come out of the D23 Expo was the news that Tom Hiddleston and Christina Hendricks will be lending their voices in the starring roles of the next release from the Tinker Bell film line. Hendricks will play Zarina, who she describes as “scrappy and inquisitive and smart and scientific and daring and really fun to play.” Hiddleston will voice James, the friend Zarina thinks is her best, but – plot twist – he’s totally Captain James Hook. “The Pirate Fairy” will be the first in the Tinker Bell stories to actually feature Neverland.

Why is this surprising? Well, beside the fact that the Tinker Bell releases are straight to video (they must be creating some serious bank to catch two stars of this magnitude), Hiddleston has a singing part. Yes friends and neighbors, prepare yourself to hear his singing voice sometime in the near future.

Inside the Magic is on the scene at D23 and recorded this interview with Disney Imagineer Jason Surrell and he had some interesting things to say about the Disney Theme Parks potential for Star Wars.

On the floor at the expo is a series of crates with hints of what might be to come, including the crate reading “Orange Harvest.” Obviously that’s a play on Blue Harvest, and both Disneyland and Disney World happen to live in the Orange County of their respective states, so anything is possible.

You can head to Inside the Magic for their full report and many more pictures of the crates.

The next bit of news comes from Micechat, a generally reliable Disney news site. They’re reporting some very enticing tidbits about the future of Star Wars at Disneyland.

From their inside (but unconfirmed) sources:

The first phase is planned to get underway this winter with the closing of Captain EO and major “placemaking” work on the existing buildings that mostly date from 1967. The 15 months of work would wrap up by early spring 2015 in time for the 60th, and leave a new Star Wars 3D movie in the old Captain EO theater, new destinations programmed into Star Tours based on the seventh Star Wars movie to be released in summer 2015, and a freshened aesthetic to the buildings surrounding Space Mountain. Once the 60th Anniversary begins to wind down, the real work begins on plans to build a Star Wars speeder bike coaster on the old PeopleMover tracks, plus more Star Wars eye candy and freshened facilities throughout the land.

My only problem with the idea of the Speeder Bike coaster on the old PeopleMover tracks is a bit of inside information I got from a Disney employee a couple of years back. When the PeopleMover was replaced by a roller coaster to begin with, they had to close the coaster after just a few years because it wasn’t safe. The infrastructure for the old PeopleMover tracks simply can’t handle the physical forces required to safely accommodate anything that moved much faster than the PeopleMover. But that’s not to say that they can’t fix all that.

But seriously, can you imagine the need of Star Wars fans to see an exclusive 20 minute Star Wars movie at Disneyland? It would increase pilgrimages exponentially.

Whatever Disney decides to do, I’ll be there. I just hope much of it is ready in time for Star Wars Celebration: Anaheim.

Muppets Most Wanted Teaser Trailer on Disney Video

This movie is high on my list of most anticipated. Doubly so with Ricky Gervais’s involvement.

The voices still bug me a bit, but that’s okay, I’m over it now.

Chim chiminey, chim chiminey, chim chim cher-ee! They’re making a movie about the adaptation of Mary Poppins by Walt Dis-ney I was excited about this film before, but after seeing the trailer, I’m agog. Just look for yourself:

Mary Poppins sits as my favorite Disney movie of all time, my favorite film musical of all time (and will for all time until they make that adaptation of Into the Woods starring Mandy Patinkin I have in my head), and sits in my top 10 favorite films of all time. I love the Sherman Brothers’ music (I wrote the In Memoriam for Robert when he passed away last year) but most of all, I love the story. Yes, it’s a story about cockney chimney sweeps and elaborate dance numbers on the rooftops of London, it’s about jumping into sidewalk chalk drawings and having a jolly holiday with Mary,  but what always struck me the most was the story of the family. Delinquent children, absent parents, a nanny to come set things right. As I grew older and had kids of my own, and had to spend increasing amounts of time at the office away from my awesome kids, I always have to remember Mr. Banks, lest I fall prey to his shortcomings myself. This scene. . .this scene gets me. Every. Time.

“Father, you can have the tuppence. . .”

And so it’s no wonder the title of the film is Saving Mr. Banks. As we hear in the trailer:

PL Travers: Mary Poppins is not for sale! I won’t have her turned into one of your silly cartoons. Walt Disney: Says the woman who sent a flying nanny with a talking umbrella to save the children. T: You think Mary Poppins has come to save the children? Oh dear. . . *** D: So it’s not the children she comes to save. It’s their father. It’s your father.

This looks like all the best bits of Finding Neverland, an amazing cast, and a whole hell of a lot of nostalgia. Remember how the internet flipped out over a fake image of Ryan Gosling doing a Disney biopic? I think people are going to flip their Mickey ears over this when it hits theaters Dec 20. Just look at that cast. Tom Hanks as Walt Disney. Emma Thompson as author PL Travers. Even the small parts are filled with amazing talent: Paul Giamatti and Bradley Whitford both show up in the trailer. (According to imdb, Giamatti plays Travers’ hired chauffer for her time in LA, and Whitford plays Don DaGradi, co-screenwriter and animator– as integral as he was to the creation of Mary Poppins, I assume we see much more of him in the film) And then. . . BJ Novak and Jason Schwartzman as  Bob and Dick Sherman, respectively. OMFG. Can I pretend that this Bob Sherman was also one of Aldo Raine’s Inglorious Basterds? (Robert Sherman walked with a cane, having been shot in the leg while serving in WWII, during which time he led a squad liberating the Dachau concentration camp). So, I’m going to keep thinking that. What we don’t see in the trailer is also the people playing Travers’ real-life family in several flashback sequences that we see in the trailer. This includes her alcoholic, n’er-do-well father played by Colin Farrell. Legit. Having just seen Pacific Rim, I wasn’t sure if I was going to be excited for any movie the rest of the year. This excites me. If it has half the heart of its inspirational material it will be one of the most moving pictures of the year. Next August will be the 50th anniversary of Mary Poppins. It went on to be the most successful box office hit for the studio ever and was nominated for and won a record number of Academy Awards for them. 50 years ago right now they would still be in production on the film. Let’s think about that as we look forward to this film.

After the abysmal failures of the late 90s, Disney’s hand drawn animation efforts had taken a turn for the worst and no one expected much from them. But from 2000 to 2002, they came out with a trifecta of movies that defied expectations and, to my mind, resurrected their hand-drawn talents for a while longer.

All three movies that came out in that period were re-released on Blu-ray recently (along with their cheapquels of less quality.)

Each of them are worth owning and re-watching. All of them look stunning on Blu-ray. All of them are a delight.

We’ll take them chronologically.

The Emperor’s New Groove (2000)

Off the heels of the well received but fairly standard retelling of Tarzan from the year before, The Emperor’s New Groove was something different altogether. Settling in with a highly stylized indigenous South American vibe, the film took all of the things I hated about Hercules and seemed to make them good, somehow. Like Hercules, it has too much anachronistic pop culture and self-awareness to it, but instead of being annoying, this film makes it charming and timeless.

David Spade, John Goodman, Eartha Kitt, and Patrick Warburton assembled to create a memorable voice cast that still gets quoted around my house to this day because the film is just so fun and funny. On rewatching, it still has a very breathless pacing to it that helps. And, like I said, it takes the weaknesses of Hercules, does them right, and turns them into strengths.

Perhaps they’d been paying attention to the Pixar model and fashioned a story that works on a variety of levels, with jokes that still go over the heads of my children and land squarely on my funny bone.

This film belongs in your collection, for sure.

Moving on to my favorite of the three films released:

Atlantis (2001)

Atlantis was as much a departure from The Emperor’s New Groove as The Emperor’s New Groove was from Tarzan. The directors took the bold adventure storytelling of Disney’s early live-action films and married it with the visual style of Mike Mignola and created a pulpy steampunk-like adventure, years before it had hit the mainstream.

Rewatching this film, I truly believe it was ahead of its time. The storytelling is fantastic, it’s equally funny and dramatic, it feels like the period it’s set in, and, above all, the visuals are gorgeous.

The story revolves around Milo Thatch, voiced by the always great Michael J. Fox, and his quest to find the lost city of Atlantis with the help of mercenary adventurers. The voice cast is filled out with the likes of Don Novello, James Garner, Leonard Nimoy, and Corey Burton, making it truly pop. It took risks most Disney films don’t, as well, making it all the more daring and alluring to an audience member like me. There’s a femme fatale character, strong and sultry. There’s a good guy turned villain in a twist with a voice perfect for the part. There’s just the right mix of comedy and adventure and excitement and it culminates into a battle the likes of which was clearly inspired by Star Wars.

It’s a breathtaking film and truly the first time I saw Mignola-like images moving in a way that seemed organic.

This is an underrated masterpiece of Disney animation and I hope it stops being overlooked.

This is definitely worth picking up for your collection. Immediately. Watch it and I dare you to tell me otherwise.

Last on the list of this renaissance is:

Lilo & Stitch (2002)

This film is a fun sci-fi adventure with a heart, set in a very stylized, water-color backgrounded Hawaii. The main protagonists are a bratty little girl and a bratty little alien who learn lessons about loyalty and who they are and what the meaning of family is.

This film works for me to a degree. It’s not one I rewatch with any regularity, the story after a few viewings seems bland, but that’s not really what you’re watching it for. For my money, this film shines the most in the animation and vibe. Who would ever think to match beautiful water-color backgrounds of Hawaii and the tone set by Elvis music to a science fiction fish out of water story? The vibe is the thing I love the most about this movie and it’s the thing I’m saddened to see go the most with this push for all 3D animated filmmaking.

There’s a charming warmth to the look and feel that you simply can’t replicate with 3D animation.

I do like this movie, but it’s the least of these three. It’s one my kids like much more than I do, and will probably watch it much more often than I do.

If you want this movie, don’t hesitate to add it to your collection as well.

If you haven’t, stop everything and watch this cartoon:

This was the first of a series of new Mickey Mouse shorts from Disney. They’re stunning and fun, and bring Mickey Mouse into a new era, with a look that feels old, but is fresh and brand new.

They’ve released two more shorts you need to watch… like right now…

What I’m really waiting for is new Donald Duck and Chip and Dale cartoons, setting them off against each other just like the old days.

These are just perfect.

UPDATE (5/15): Disney is now claiming that the images below on the website have always included the 3D rendered Merida, as she originally looked in Brave, and that the images floating around on the internet were for a limited line of products.

To which I declare, “Shenanigans!” I’ll go into this further, tomorrow, possibly, after I’ve had some sleep and gotten all my work done for my actual job.

And I’m still glad that, no matter what the sequence of events or what image was on whose website when, that Disney isn’t using a sexy version of Merida to try to sell more princess swag to my impressionable little girl.

Peace.

###

We first brought you the story of Disney’s sexy makeover of their Princess line over the weekend, but it looks like fan outrage, including over 120,000 signatures on a petition to Bob Iger and a scathing editorial by Brenda Chapman, the creator of and one of the directors of Brave, has turned some heads at the House of Mouse.

As of this moment, this is what the Disney Princess site at http://princess.disney.com/ looks like:

Notice anything different? Gone is the “Sexy Merida” from the art we saw earlier:

And she’s been replaced by her old 3D rendered self. Huzzah!

Normally, I don’t approve of huge corporations just chucking things down the memory hole to hide their mistakes. But in this case– it sends a message.

More interesting still is that the rest of the sexy princesses have remained, still with their slightly vacant “come hither” eyes.

I gotta say, the more I think about this, the less I’m bothered by Merida and more bothered by Belle. You know, the one who was smart, into books, always had her hair a little out of place, and didn’t judge people by their looks? Oh, I don’t see her at all. I see the girl Gaston might have been into, though. Belle, Cinderella, and Rapunzel all look slightly off from how they used to. Mulan and Pocahontas look a lot more different.

Regardless, this is a victory, and now we can get back to enjoying the other 10 over-commercialized, vapid, shallow princesses and all the negative stereotypes they reinforce and go back to just keeping Merida as your feminist-friendly Disney princess.

And h/t to our Facebook friend Anna who spotted this change and pointed it out. (Yes, we do read your comments on Facebook.)

UPDATE:  Brave’s director, Brenda Chapman, has weighed in. And she is, shall we say, not happy:

“I think it’s atrocious what they have done to Merida,” Chapman said in a letter to her local newspaper, the Marin Independent Journal.

“When little girls say they like it because it’s more sparkly, that’s all fine and good but, subconsciously, they are soaking in the sexy ‘come hither’ look and the skinny aspect of the new version. It’s horrible!

“Merida was created to break that mould – to give young girls a better, stronger role model, a more attainable role model, something of substance, not just a pretty face that waits around for romance.”

h/t to Bizzarobot who just posted this on Facebook.

UPDATE 2: And then this happened. . .  Sexy Merida has been replaced.

***

And it’s official. Merida from Pixar’s Brave is officially the 11th of the Disney Princesses. In a ceremony at Walt Disney World in Orlando earlier today, Saturday, May 11, Merida officially became part of the Disney Princess line. (h/t to InsidetheMagic.net for some awesome coverage fo the event, including tons of pictures and video.) However, not all is right in the house that Walt built.

Somehow, in order to join the ranks of Cinderella, Ariel, and Belle, Merida had to get a little makeover:

So, obviously Merida had to lose a few pounds from her waist, gain them back in her chest and hips, get a new hairdo, put on more makeup, lose her iconic bow and arrow, and wear the dress that she hated in the movie Brave.

And because this is unsettling to oh so many, a petition to Bob Iger, CEO of Disney and future supervillain sprang up on Change.org, asking for Disney to please return Merida to her original body and image.  Already nearly 100,000 people have signed the petition called Disney: Say No to the Merida Makeover, Keep Our Hero Brave!

Does this matter? In a word, yes. For those unfamiliar with a feminist critique of Disney Princesses, it was fairly simple: most of them were nitwits, waiting for a prince to come and save them or somehow complete their existence. Merida was the exact opposite of that. She had no interest in her boy suitors, preferring  the woods, her bow and arrows, and adventure. She took charge, and when her mother was cursed, she took action herself to set things right.

One of the petition signers,  Kris Dorman of Utah, wrote: “Merida was the anti-princess for all of us who don’t wear makeup, let our hair rampage free, and prefer to wear real clothes that let us hike, climb mountains, and ride horses. Please allow Merida to remain the fiercely confident young woman who doesn’t need glitter or skin to know she is of incredible strength and worth.”

Peggy Orenstein, author of the book Cinderella Ate My Daughter, described the changes on her blog: “There’s the hot hair, the coy expression. Also the obligatory exposed shoulders (moms tell me all the time that their preschool daughters are pitching fits and destroying their t-shirts because “princesses don’t cover their shoulders), slimmer waist, and the bow and arrow replaced by…what is that, a low-slung belt? And she has what appear to be high-heeled shoes. Or at least slimmer, pointier feet. . .Because, in the end, it wasn’t about being brave after all. It was about being pretty.”

As a focus-group of 1, I had my 7 year old daughter look at the pictures of Merida and ask her what she thought. “Dad, I like the new one better. She’s prettier,” she told me very matter-of-factly.

 And yes, that’s her, dressed as Merida for her last birthday party. So, she has some affinity for the character. When I pointed out that Merida was missing her bow and arrows, that they made her skinnier, my little girl didn’t see any of that. The merchandising-lust welling up in her eyes, I could see those Disney marketing geniuses knew their stuff, issues of feminism or body image be damned!

That is, perhaps, what is so damaging here. It’s not that they’re changing Merida in ways that sexualize her, or remove the bits that make her a strong heroine, it’s that the target demographic doesn’t get the subconscious signals being sent their way.

In case you were wondering, it’s not only Merida who’s been given a makeover:

At least in this one, Merida still has her bow.  So, for comparison, before:

and after:

And yes, the subreddit r/Disneyporn just exploded in underage semi-porn ecstasy, and the folks on DeviantArt making Disney Princess sexy pics are going to have to shutdown for “copyright infringement.”  I kid. But I’m kidding on the square.

It’s not that we at BSR are prudes, nor are we generally uptight over these sorts of things. If I go to Dragon*Con and see a sexy Merida cosplay, that is one thing. Because that is for adults. But when you take a girl, and tell her that to be “pretty” means losing weight, gaining a cup size, wearing makeup and a strapless dress, and batting some sexy eyes, that’s another thing entirely.

Of course, the best way to send a message to Disney is with your wallet. If sales dip with this redesign, they’ll know why. Unfortunately, I fear that whatever the Disney version of a Brony is will more than make up for loss of sales from parents like me.

But backing down from doing the right thing is not what Merida would do.

Walt Disney Studios has announced that the popular Pixar film, Finding Nemo, will be getting a big-screen sequel centered around everyone’s blue tang fish, Dory. Finding Dory is slated to hit cinemas on November 25, 2015.

Ellen DeGeneres is already on board to reprise her role as the forgetful fish, and had this to say about the new film:

“I’m not mad it took this long. I know the people at Pixar were busy creating ‘Toy Story 16.’ But the time they took was worth it. The script is fantastic. And it has everything I loved about the first one: It’s got a lot of heart, it’s really funny, and the best part is—it’s got a lot more Dory.” [WSJ]

Andrew Stanton is set to direct, he noted that the sequel will take place about a year after the events of the first film, will take place along the California coastline, and Nemo, Marlin, and other characters from the first film will appear along with some new additions.

“There is no Dory without Ellen,” he said. “She won the hearts of moviegoers all over the world—not to mention our team here at Pixar. One thing we couldn’t stop thinking about was why she was all alone in the ocean on the day she met Marlin. In ‘Finding Dory,’ she will be reunited with her loved ones, learning a few things about the meaning of family along the way.” [IGN]

When I heard this announcement today, I was ecstatic, especially with the news that Stanton will be directing. Of course, there’s no “need” for this sequel, but unlike Cars 2, I think this will be a welcomed one. It’s not a stretch given Dory’s knack for forgetfulness that she would somehow become lost – and I’d imagine Nemo and Marlin will have to head out on an adventure to find her. I could be wrong there, but either way, I am very pleased to see this announcement and will be looking forward to November 2013.

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